Green Day
Wrigley Field – Wrigleyville, IL
August 24th, 2017
Another day, another bucket list. Green Day has a special place in my heart, as they captured the frustration and angst when I was a teenager – when frustration and angst were at an all time high. I had been trying to see them live for a decade, and it just never had worked out.
Over the past few years, my concert crew has started a tradition where we all meet in Chicago for a show at Wrigley Field once a year. It’s such a great place to watch a concert (not to mention the best baseball stadium on the planet). So far, we’ve seen some spectacular shows there, and so when Green Day released a show at Wrigley, it was a no-brainer. Our sights were set on Wrigley in August.
This show stood up to every expectation I had for it – and my expectations couldn’t have been higher. Green Day came out and spent nearly three hours absolutely crushing this show. Three hours of spectacular showmanship, three hours of pulling hit song after hit song out of their endless catalog.
Know Your Enemy. Holiday. Letterbomb. When I Come Around. St. Jimmy. Basket Case. She. And On and On. Over and over and over Green Day pulled out a great song, jammed as much energy as they could into it, and executed it perfectly in front of a rabid fan base. They couldn’t be more squarely in the conversation for best live performances around.
Highlights of this show are hard to pick out because it was such a consistently excellent show. Here are a few things that really stand out to me:
- They talked a lot about their Chicago roots – as a young punk band they came to play shows in Wrigleyville a lot and really felt like they were a part of this city. As someone who loves Chicago, and even more specifically loves Wrigleyville, it was awesome to see that this place felt like home for Green Day also.
- Still Breathing was a fantastic sing along, and had the biggest crowd involvement of the night. Listening to Billie Joe sing with a packed Wrigley Field is something I’ll never forget.
- The first encore comprised of my two favorite Green Day songs – American Idiot and Jesus of Suburbia. The place went crazy when the pummeling drum intro led into American Idiot.
- Finally, as a father to young boys, I’m a sucker for kids. During Longview, Billie Joe pulled up a 8-year old kid to sing. The irony of the song lyrics and the kids age was not lost on me, but he was so excited and knew all the words. At the end of the song, he handed Billie Joe the microphone and did a full blown stage dive, with a running start, into the crowd. It was awesome.
Ultimately, this show had all the energy of a punk rock show, with the performance quality of a world-class band, at one of the best concert venues in the country. Just spectacular. So thankful I got to see it!
Until next time!